Sunday, May 27, 2012

Pea-nuckle Pasta Parfait

Molly Hollibaugh's new tangle, Pea-nuckle, does actually remind me of pasta--cavatappi, to be precise! Those hollow, ribbed spirals that I didn't even know about until recently. Such a cool pasta! I'm not sure what parfait has to do with it...but I liked the way it sounded. And Pea-nuckle indeed comes together in distinct layers.

The Diva chose Pea-nuckle for Challenge #71 (click to connect to her blog post about it), and I am barely getting it in before the end of the week. It was the last week of school, for me as well as my kids, and was a doozy, but I didn't want to miss yet another challenge! I do plan to go back and complete #71, the Sepia challenge. But here is what I "knuckled down" to complete and submit this week:

It was fun, and I enjoyed the challenge of making Pea-nuckle come together. My way of striating it in this tile makes the foreground shapes look like striped zucchinis or super long, skinny watermelons. (Such a food-focused blog entry this is!) So I think next time I will not do it quite this way. As I was working, I had several ideas for several other approaches I'd like to try with this tangle, but for the sake of getting the tile done, I forged ahead and just strove to be consistent. I did not even use another tangle...I just added auras to the background, with a few swirls and some weighting/rounding thrown in to keep things interesting.

Today I enjoyed a delicious lunch with my parents and my kids at the Tomato Head in Maryville--what a treat! In fact, though none of us had it, I do believe they serve cavatappi as the pasta on the kids menu! Mostly Tomato Head is known for delicious pizza and salads, sandwiches, and burritos. It offers a wide range of vegetarian options, and the food is always fresh and interesting, not to mention yummy.

Afterwards, a short stroll down the street brought me to an art studio where I met Cindy McDannel, an artist and teacher who had contacted me earlier this spring to do a demo in June for Fine Arts Blount, a non-profit artist association in Maryville. I'm all set up for the June meeting! Just a quick demo. Should be fun!

In other news...I stopped into the Knoxville Book Arts Guild's meeting last week to introduce Zentangle. Thanks to Louise Ragle for inviting me...Louise had seen my presentation to the Smoky Mountain Quilters back in April, and thought her book arts guild would enjoy learning about Zentangle. I think they did, and I know that I truly enjoyed learning about this local group. I met some wonderful artists, and can't wait to go to future meetings. Zentangle and book arts are a fantastic match!